Noah
History Outwardly, Noah had what some classmates would call an ideal life as a youngster. Living in San Diego, the youth grew up on the beach and out in the skate parks; he got his first skateboard at the age of six and barely could be pried off of it, except for when he discovered that surfing, too, was a hell of a lot of fun. He was one of those kids who could rarely be found inside, and he and his handful of friends would regularly cut school to go be deviants around and about the town; they never really did anything bad, but boys will be boys, and some people didn’t exactly appreciate this. To his peers, he wasn’t exactly popular, but drew a certain amount of appreciation. He didn’t play sports at the school, but he was athletic and good at what he did, and had a certain amount of roguish charm about him. His home life, however, wasn’t as idealistic as might be implied. He was sort of an accident, the result of a whirlwind relationship between a traveling Fianna and a human girl. The ‘relationship’ lasted a month, give or take a few days; he left and she cried a lot, despite having known from the start that it wouldn’t last. She was one of those people who didn’t show signs of pregnancy until much later, and she was terrified and her parents (for she was rather young; she was 20 and still in college) were very angry, being wholesome religious conservative sort of folks. She pondered abortion, but her mother, again being a conservative sort, pressured her into keeping the kid. However, despite their disappointment, they did help her out. She finished college with a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and went to work at a local high school as a counselor. She never made much money; barely enough to get by, really. She remarried when he was five, despite him giving her new boyfriend all sorts of hell, including kicking him in the shins on his first visit. Noah and his stepfather never really understood each other at all. He was the principal of the school and thus brought in a decent income and made their living easier, but this also meant that he had no tolerance for his stepson’s behavior once Noah got up to middle school and got to be old enough to be skipping school and all. This resulted in a number of positively nasty shouting matches that resulted more than once in him getting kicked out of the house for a night; his mother, while she loved him, also was the sort who didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize her relationship with her husband (which was, in fact, fairly healthy), and so just worried and fretted but did little to stop it. This also strained Noah’s relationship with his mother, and they, too, took to arguing too much. He was frequently grounded but was defiant and stubborn enough to completely blow this off, and he snuck out regularly regardless. They decided to have a baby together when Noah was fifteen. He didn’t accept this very well, and just took to spending more and more time away from home, heading out with friends. He failed his sophomore year, and the incipient signs of a first change began to come over the youth, which of course no one recognized. The baby had since been born, and while he didn’t dislike his new sister, he also found the crying and the stress of living with a new baby on top of living with parents he didn’t get along with At All just too much. In an emotional fit, he shoved his belongings in a bag and left home. Of course, his parents called the police, and he was found a day later; without a car, he didn’t really get very far. Unfortunately, he also firsted on the police, which was an utter disaster and an even worse Veil Breach, though he somehow managed to not kill anyone in his ineffectual flailings. Luckily, the local Garou collected him in short order and started his training, and also mostly contained the Veil Breach (though it was a worry for a time; luckily nothing ever came of it). As for his parents, the cops stayed on watch for awhile, and his parents were distraught, though of course they were never told anything aside from that he was a runaway who wasn’t found. The Sept in question was the Sept of the Pacific Sun in southern California (San Diego), under Osprey. It’s a decent sized Sept of a collection of tribes, though Get, Shadow Lords, and the Pure Tribes don’t have much of a presence; nor do the Red Talons, for obvious reasons. He proved to have the instincts of a damp paper towel and had a rabid distrust of authority, which led to him getting into trouble a whole lot as a young cub. Really, if it had been anyone but the Gaians who had found him, he probably would have been culled very early on. However, a theurge, Edward ~Hears-the-Unseen~, a fostern and experienced enough in the ways of the world and patient with cubs, took him under his wing. The mythology part of the Garou was something he never really took to. He respects the spirits with a sort of dubiety and recognizes that they certainly exist (after all, he has been to the umbra), but he’s very hands-off in his dealings with them even now; one could probably find a better ritualist in the aforementioned damp paper towel. His cubhood was long and difficult, as the kid was reluctant at best, and he had a hard time finding a reason to do much of anything this newfound life required of him. He wasn’t a ritualist; at the time he considered the rites to be hokey and even a little comical in a way (though fortunately he knew enough to keep this viewpoint to himself). He found the fighting part intriguing after discovering he could, in fact, heal rather easily (which also took his daredevilry in freerunning and boarding to somewhat frightening heights), and he found the trickster and the questioner parts of the ragabash a little too ''fun, as well. He has a few incidents as a cub, none of which were all that horrible but did cause some occasional setbacks. For one, his teachers had a hard time arousing the kid’s interest. He just didn’t ''get the war, really, because he’d never seen it. Some part of them understood this, but it was a little frustrating to try to get through to a cub who wouldn’t take things seriously. It wasn’t until his first real encounter with the Wyrm that he shaped up. After all, seeing it is quite an eye-opening experience (quite literally; the cub spent a whole lot of time wide-eyed and going ‘oh god oh god oh god’), and served to both humble and ground him a little in his lessons. It was a good thing, since he finally shut up and started paying attention. His Rite came about a few months after this, and it was fairly straightforward. By this time, he had been a cub for a long time and had been ready for the past month, but his progression had been a bit lost in a shuffling of both tribal and Sept leadership. He was sent out with other cubs of different auspices and different tribes to seek a solution to the corruption seeping into the ocean on a beach nearby. It was a difficult Rite, particularly in getting these differing personalities (incidentally, a Gnawer Theurge, another Child of Gaia philodox, and a Glass Walker Ahroun) to always see eye to eye and work with one another; the ahroun in particular was assigned to them partially because of his temper and his tendency to bull-headedly take charge even when it was not always called for. There may have been a little prank or two pulled to knock him down a peg or two and get him to work with the others, but Noah still doesn’t quite admit his involvement in this. The source was found (it was a small nest of banes on the umbral side), and clean-up went as expected. They all passed and formed a pack afterward (they ended up under Dolphin, partially due to their involvement in that particular clean-up), but the pack didn’t last very long before they all strayed their different ways. Noah in particular never felt a true pack bond with these guys, but he tried nonetheless. After his Rite, he stuck around, helped out, and was sort of aimless. He made a lot of mistakes here and there; though he had friends (and indeed ran with a Merlin pack for a little while, but decidedly Did Not Fit and ultimately left after a few months), he wasn’t the most well regarded around, as he had a tendency toward a bit of laziness and a preference for doing his own things; he also took his role as a Questioner a bit too far sometimes, and even the lenient elders of the Sept were occasionally annoyed by it. However, he was easy to talk to, and most found an easy friend in him if that’s what they wanted; the boy just had the positive renown of a gnat. At any rate, he never bothered challenging. He kept up with his mundane practices; skateboarding, some surfing, and eventually got decent with few weapons such as daggers and all. He was good with kin and being a moderately approachable figure to humans, at least, and though he wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box, he was usually fairly sharp. He just felt an odd sense of never quite finding his proper role. Perhaps he found a similar soul in a Strider that wandered through; either way, when the Strider Desh arrived at the Sept in San Diego, he struck up with him fairly readily. Desh was a follower of Coyote; this had always appealed to the ragabash, though he’d never found anyone willing to pack under it. He also appreciated Desh’s views, and perhaps found a little bit of a purpose. With this other guy, Noah managed to find a third and they slapped together a Coyote pack, which of course did wonders for his reputation. Eventually, as Striders are wont to do, Desh decided to leave (really, the truth of the matter was the pair had gotten into some trouble with the elders of the Sept for their antics; rather than stick around with a Sept that didn’t Understand, he decided to bid farewell to San Diego and travel onward). Their packmate, a theurge Gnawer named Brad, decided to split to do other things; he liked it too much in San Diego to consider leaving. Before Noah left (and four years after he disappeared), he also popped in to see his parents and apologize for all the trouble, and reassure them. This proved to be both a relief and a mistake; his mother cried and cried and asked why he couldn’t stay, and things were very uncomfortable. It was difficult to pry himself away, particularly when he didn’t have any good excuses. He made up something about having a decent job and having been relocated. Little white lies, eh? At any rate, he was a little downcast and grumbly when they left, but his spirits slowly picked up as they traveled. They stuck to the roads for over a year, traveling from Sept to Sept, extolling justice where it was necessary and acting on the wicked; catching and turning in those who harmed others, supernatural or no, and making the world, in his eyes, a little bit of a better place for them having passed through it. Some of these places chased them out; there was one incident with a Black Fury that is likely best left not spoken about too much. Money came and went; they didn’t keep a lot of it aside from enough to keep them on the road with gas in the tank, clothes on their backs, and food in their bellies. Eventually, the road got a little tiring. They pondered over a late-night dinner at Denny’s, and finally St. Claire was decided on and circled on the map. After all, hell, the place had a reputation for being a ragtag Sept, but it was also the last Gaian Sept in Washington. Surely there’d be something to do, eh? * Personality He’s stereotypical coggie in some ways and decidedly not in others. He often struggles to fit in with the expectations of his tribe, as he’s a little more physical and a little less activist than some other coggies. Some of this is in his head; he really does have a good heart and he hates infighting and finds it pointless and useless and ultimately agrees with the fact that the tribal divisions need to be done away with, though he doesn’t have much tolerance for injustice. He also often feels like people need to lighten up and those who are too proud often need to be knocked down a peg or two. He’s not the most intelligent garou out there, but he’s quick-witted and fast, and is rather athletic and thrives on new experiences. He’s pretty damn good on a skateboard and can handle himself well enough on a surfboard, and is handy with a few blades. Most of the trouble he causes is harmless (or, rather, all of it is intended to be harmless; sometimes it backfires), but some don’t exactly appreciate it. He does, at least, have enough of a brain to know who to poke at and who not to; he values his hide well enough to avoid ahroun. Otherwise, he’s good natured and has a quick grin and an easy-going personality, though he can be just a little mercurial on occasion, particularly on his moon. He tends to wear his emotions on his sleeve, as well. Play List: * Stuff goes here Friends and Acquaintances Friends and Family: * Stuff goes here Others: * Stuff Sheet Notes: Recent Happenings Category:Character Archive